2020 Bodegas Ponce ‘Ponce’

2020 Bodegas Ponce ‘Ponce’

2020 Bodegas Ponce ‘Ponce’ The eponymous red 2020 Ponce is, according to Juan António Ponce, the best wine he’s ever produced. 2020 was a very healthy vintage and they got very good Moravia Agria grapes that represent some 20% of the blend here complementing Bobal. It fermented with 100% full clusters in 4,500-liter oak vats and matured in 600-liter French oak barrels for 12 months. It’s 13% alcohol and has a pH of 3.55 with 5.3 grams of acidity. It’s a very perfect vintage; the absence of rain meant very clean and perfect Moravia grapes, and they could produce a little more of this wine than in 2019. There’s more backbone here, but it’s in the style of the 2018 as for the depth and complexity, than the 2019. It has finesse and amazing tastiness and is beautifully textured, with a chalky finish. This has to be one of the finest wines in central Spain. 4,300 bottles were filled in September 2021.

A Star Is Born! This is the most exciting new wine I have tasted this year that absolutely blew my mind. You know when you see something or taste something that absolutely freaks you out it was so good and you never saw it coming. This is one of those experiences. I have been doing this for thirty years and I keep doing it for those surprising unexpected moments when I taste a wine that blows me away out of left field. The wine is the 2020 Bodegas Ponce ‘Ponce’, 98pts Parker’s WA , and at the price is one of the most exciting, spectacular red wines I have tasted in some time. Bodegas Ponce is brought to us by Juan Antonio Ponce who started the winery in 2005 at the ripe old age of 23. He studied his craft under the great Spanish wine maker Telmo Rodriguez. Telmo’s wine was the number one wine on James Suckling’s Top 100 Spanish Wines of 2021. He is a genius at working with native Spanish varietals and making some of Spain’s greatest wines  Telmo was among the first to make significant wines in Toro, Rueda, Valdeorras, Malaga, Alicante and Cigales. Juan Antonio is following in his footsteps, starting with a piece of land in Manchuela, owned by his father that has ancient Bobal vines on it. Juan Antonio Ponce stands alone as the leader of Manchuela and as the master of the Bobal grape. The grape can be quite rustic and powerful but Juan Antonio has learned how to tame it. According to Juan Antonio this is the greatest wine he has made and 2020 has been describes as a perfect vintage that has delivered the finest wines they have made to date. This wine is truly word class and reminds me of the first time I tasted the great Catena Alte wines for Argentina or the great Priorat’s or El Nido from Spain. I never new these area’s could make such great wine and I never new Manchuela and the Bobal grape could make such a world class big red. If you love big reds, this wine will blow you away like it did me. Cant miss red!